THIS book was originally written as an introduction to the
Survey of International Affairs in 1920-3, and was intended
for publication as part of the same volume; but both parts
grew in the making until it became necessary to divide them
into the two separate volumes which are now being published
simultaneously by the Oxford University Press. The number
of important events which crowded the years covered by the
Survey made the compression of that volume within the limits
originally laid down an impossibility, while, at the same time,
those responsible for the whole publication felt that Mr.
Toynbee's introduction was far too valuable to the student of
post-war history to be suppressed or even curtailed. Adrift on
the vast and shifting sea of facts and allegations of which this
period consists, the explorer needs some chart of the terra firma
of previous history, from the--comparatively--fixed points of
which he may take his bearings and establish his position.
Such a chart the present volume will, it is hoped, be found to
provide; but, like a chart, it is an independent piece of work,
complete in itself, and capable, therefore, of being severed from
the context with which it was originally associated.

While it is anticipated that most readers will not rest content
with the introductory volume only, it is possible that some may
be found whose ambitions go no farther than to desire a sound
and impartial historical orientation in the troubled era in which
they are compelled to live, and to such this comparatively
short, but at the same time penetrating, review may be more
welcome in its present form than as part of a larger, and, in
the alternative shape, decidedly more unwieldy whole.

G. M. GATHORNE-HARDY.
Honorary Secretary,
British Institute of International Affairs.